I recently got the chance to explore a whole new area of hiking trails with a friend. We hadn’t hung out in a while, and the weather was perfect for a hike in the high desert, so she suggested Wilson Creek, which is south of Nampa. I hadn’t been there before, so we met up at her place and then she drove us out.
I enjoyed the views on the way; I always forget how many mountains you can see south of Nampa. The drive itself seemed to pass quickly as we caught up with what’s been going on in each other’s lives since we’d last had a chance to hang out.
The one thing she warned me about was the trails were situated in an open range, so we might run into some cows. We pulled up by the main trailhead, but decided to keep going to a secondary one to avoid any crowds. We were the only vehicle in the parking lot that we chose, and I picked a direction and we hiked south along the road.
Well, we thought it was along trail, as there seemed to be a trail along the side of the road. But it turned out to be more of a sandy ditch, so we stepped back up onto the road. After a while, the road offered us a trail and we took that, curving around in a big loop, following trails kind of at random.
It’s not often that I go on a hike without extensive pre-planning, especially in a new an unfamiliar area. I liked it. Not something I’ll do all the time, but something I’d like to do more often. Of course, it helped that my friend was familiar with the area, and when we wanted to get back to the car, she knew which trails would get us in that general direction.
We took some challenging uphill routes, but overall the hike wasn’t strenuous, or too long. Just a few hours hiking in the spring high desert, with birds of prey circling overhead and cattle flocking down below. We didn’t run into any cows while hiking, but on the road one almost followed us as we were heading out.
 |
| Oof that was a steep climb! |
 |
| A calf frolicking next to the road. |